ENCOURAGEMENT FROM MY HEART TO YOURS

The Beauty in a Mess

My three-year-old is the queen of messes. She is an
experience-every-little-part-of-the-moment child. She doesn’t care if she
spills stuff all over the floor or if she ruins an outfit. It’s all about fully
experiencing everything in front of her. I love that about her, but it also
drives me nuts sometimes.

My girls were painting suncatchers at the table while I was
cleaning up this afternoon. They were happy and quietly working. When I came
over to see what they created, I didn’t recognize the image beneath the mess of
my youngest’s creation. She must have tried to empty each of the paint
containers on her suncatcher. Thankfully, a paper plate was beneath it.

I tried to drip off the excess paint, which she didn’t like.
It was either that or chuck the whole thing.

As I looked at the swirls of paint on the paper plate, I
couldn’t help but see the beauty in it.

Out of the mess came a beautiful creation.

It makes me think of how God takes the messes I create in
life and transforms them into something beautiful.

I don’t know how he does it; I just know he does.

Just this week I got to experience that. Michael and I are
youth group leaders at church, and we are currently in a series about
relationships. This week, all the leaders had a chance to share their own
experiences and answer questions asked by the youth.

God took my mess from those teenage years and turned it into
a testimony. I was able to share nuggets of wisdom with those youth about my
own relationship mistakes.

I’m thankful God doesn’t let us just stand in our mess. He
comes in and transforms it (when we let him).

I hope and pray you allow God to turn your mess into
something beautiful. There are countless people who will be touched by its
message.

It is so valuable for kids to hear about messes that adults made as kids. We do learn, we grow, and we most times,with the Grace of God, we come out a better person. I am sure the kids listening to your stories were touched that night.